Your words are gold. HenryP should be popping in at any moment and thanking you. Praise seems to be one of the few things B&H is willing to respond to these days. Far in excess of Greta's blog, your praise may be deserving of a free B&H catalog, a couple of tea cups, and an autographed photo of HenryP. Naked. in Times Square.

That said, no one is denying that B&H has, in the past, won our affection with better practices than their competitors. You haven't been following the issues if you believe this is a matter of customers taking personal responsibility for their pre-orders. Many, if not most, already have picked up their D800's elsewhere. The outrage being expressed here is in the way B&H has failed to be transparent, for continuing to deflect blame onto others, for their mixed messages, for stringing customers along, and for failure to follow the best practices expected of them.

Everyone can have a bad day, but the cascading chain of errors has exposed a side of B&H many were not accustomed to seeing. It's like seeing the other side of the Magic Kingdom. The dark side.

Until mended, their previous stellar reputation will carry a blemish, and their ability to deliver questioned. For the most part, this hasn't prevented many of us from continuing to order items from B&H. Particularly those which they clearly have in stock.

Most of the criticisms published do not predict the end of B&H, but the beginning of an opportunity to make right the issues customers have deemed unsatisfactory. Your personal testimonial, while admirable, would probably be more effective if it omitted the lecturing, dropped the defensive posturing, and offered more encouragement for better practices. After all, B&H can benefit from best practices as much or more as their customers. I'd prefer this to be a win-win for everyone ... but if not, it's an opportunity for another vendor to step-up to the stage rather than fall into the moshpit of PR disasters. JMO.

TangoWay
wrote:

B&H is the best online company I have dealt with. I understand the frustration of those who have waited for D800 orders to be filled, but B&H does not charge credit cards until the item is shipped. Please take some personal responsibility for your decision to preorder anything. There has been time to look around for another suppler. It doesn’t take much reading to understand that Nikon vastly underestimated the popularity of the D800. I think it is a little silly to think that Nikon or B&H would ever do anything intentionally to anger loyal customers.

I have spent over $24,000 with B&H over the past 30 months and have never had a complaint about anything. I’m sure B&H has much bigger customers than I am, but I have always been treated like my business is important. Frequently orders are delivered early, packaging has always been more than adequate, and communication is outstanding. I don’t know of another company that stocks the quantity of photographic equipment, shares information about new products, and offers valuable professional techniques the way B&H does. The fact that B&H pays Henry to be on this forum, offering information and responding to questions is remarkable. We all should be thanking Henry for the service he provides. If B&H has what I’m looking for, I don’t look anywhere else. They seem to take a personal interest in photography and photographers, and I appreciate that.